Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Almost-Spring

I hope your Saint Patty's day is treating you well. Mine is treating me well.

I started this day with breakfast, watching Battlestar Galactica's "Last Fracking Special". It's a nice way to start the day except it reminded me that there is only one more episode - two more hours - of Galactica left. It will be missed.

I suited up (a green shirt, of course) and headed out on the bike. It was early in the day and there was nary a breeze. I headed south on the Keystone Trail before turning west on the West Papio Trail.

On the West Papio the breeze started to pick up. I was a little surprised that the breeze was from the north-west as I'd expected it from the south. This boded ill for my return trip. The West Papio passes fields that are bare this time of year (but hints of green are starting to appear!), passes just south of the attractive Papillion downtown, and eventually "Ts" at 96th street allowing you to ride either north or south. I chose to do neither and turned around to head back.

When I arrived at the Keystone trail and turned north the real hurting started. The breeze felt like a hurricane and I struggled a bit. It sucks enough when the youngins pass you up but, when the old guy zips by you, it really hurts.

I reached home, the GPS said 21.70 miles (a new personal best), and, on wobbly legs, headed for the showers. Clean, I opened the sliders and windows to let in the fresh, almost-spring air, I loaded up a podcast, and tried to recuperate on the sofa. It would have been perfect except my thighs started to scream bloody murder.

When the podcast was over about an hour later the screaming had become unbearable - my pain tolerance is pretty wimpy. I took some Tylenol and had some lunch. I watched the end of the Daily Show while I waited for the pills to kick in.

The pain finally faded into the background so I grabbed my book (a good one, by the way), went out on the deck, and sat down in one of our new teak rockers. The rockers are pretty comfortable but they are a little hard on my boney butt - a cushion may be in order. The breeze was a little chilly but the sun fixed that right quick. It's in the low 70s today. I read for a little over an hour and a half.

I paused after awhile, looked at the almost-spring blue sky, listened to the almost-spring birds singing, felt the almost-spring breeze and the almost-spring sunshine, felt how content I was, and thought: "What a beautiful day."